(Isa. 49:1, 8)
Sir Isaac Newton observes that to the Hebrews the continents of Asia and Africa were “the earth,” because they had access to them by land, while the parts of the earth to which they sailed over the sea were “the isles of the sea.”
(George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, ed. Philip C. Reynolds, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1955–1961], 1:214.)
Can refer to islands proper or … lands accessible by sea… . Although Solomon and then Jehoshaphat engaged in some seafaring expeditions (cf. 1 Kgs. 9:26–28; 22:48), the Israelites were not a seafaring people and their first port city, Joppa, did not come into their possession until the time of the Maccabbees… . For Israel, knowledge of the islands and coastlands of the Mediterranean was based on hearsay, the best source being the Phoenecians, their seafaring neighbors… .
Most of the OT’s references to islands occur in Isaiah… . The islands are an image of the far-flung and little-known nations across the Mediterranean world… . For Isaiah the islands are images of the ends of the earth, borders of the … world that nevertheless fall under the sovereignty of Yahweh.
(Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, ed. Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, [Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998], 429.)